F.E.A.R Online – MMO Fallout

Aeria Games announced today that F.E.A.R Online will launch on October 17th via Steam. Players will be able to get into the game’s open beta beginning on October 8th via the Aeria Games portal, which you can sign up for on the game’s website.

“We are excited to introduce F.E.A.R. Online to millions of PC gamers with the launch on the Steam platform,” said Dr. Pascal Zuta, CEO of Aeria Games. “Taking player feedback to heart, our team has redesigned elements of the game that are most important to players to deliver an experience that we hope will please the vast and dedicated fan base of the F.E.A.R. series.”

F.E.A.R Online runs parallel to the events of F.E.A.R 2, in the middle of a war between Armacham Security Forces and F.E.A.R operatives. In addition to competitive modes, F.E.A.R Online offers several cooperative game modes.

(Source: Aeria Games Press Release)

F.E.A.R is one of my favorite games of the last decade, a story that sounds like someone took the horror elements of The Ring and forced it to have children with a satisfying shooter. While the story wasn’t particularly groundbreaking (scary dead girl seeks revenge), the game managed to pull together a tense atmosphere and an intelligent AI capable of forming its strategy on the fly and actually giving the player a run for their money. Like any western horror story, however, the F.E.A.R franchise shifted dramatically from scary and tense to ridiculous and over the top as the series progressed, almost becoming a parody of itself by F.E.A.R 3 or as it was so creatively named: F.3.A.R

One of F.E.A.R’s more enjoyable yet lesser known features has been the game’s multiplayer modes. Expanding upon the multiplayer, Korean studio Inplay Interactive has announced F.E.A.R Online, published in the United States through Aeria Games. Set for release in the future, F.E.A.R Online will feature ten maps and a number of multiplayer modes, including Soul King where players take the role of ghosts possessing bodies and killing each other for souls. The game will also feature a co-op mode where players take on the NPC hoards of monsters and Armacham soldiers.

Hopefully we will hear more about F.E.A.R Online soon. According to the company’s website, it was set for release in late 2012, however that might just be the Korean launch.